~First Day of Kindergarten~

Wow...today was a day mixed with shrills, excitement, anticipation and giddiness for my sweet little five year old. For me...mostly tears of happiness and sadness all at the same time; very bitter sweet!! I have been with sweet girl everyday since she was born and now she is a kindergartner!!

It has been building all summer. She has literally been counting down the days. As the last few days have gone by she has been getting more and more excited. She has known what she was going to wear for weeks. Lots of things have changed now that she is a big girl. Anything that she tries new she says it is because she is a kindergartner, she does not need her protective pillow at the edge of her bed anymore because she is a kindergartner...so to say the least the anticipation was huge for her first day!!

Our day started at 6am. She bounced right out of bed and hugged me and her daddy so excited that the day was finally here. She had picked out her outfit weeks in advance...even though it is near 100 degrees outside she insisted on wearing jeans and a shirt with a beautiful jeweled cardigan over it...it is totally fitting for her and we were not surprised at all that she was dressed like it was 50 degrees outside. She wanted honey nut cheerios for breakfast and her hair in a ponytail...she did not want me to make her lunch, she wanted to buy lunch at school "since she is a big girl now". By 7am we all five loaded up and headed to the school. I was doing fine until we got to the next street over and the bus was there and all the kids were loading up and I saw all the parents taking pics of their kids getting on the bus...I lost it. How did we get to this point so fast??

Once we get to the school we all unload and head in. We were able to take her to her classroom and she unpacked her backpack and was able to say good morning to her teacher and then we headed to the kindergarten holding area. This is where my sweet baby girl hugged and kissed us by and started a whole new chapter in her life...she will do this for the next 13 years. I am happy because I know she will love it and is so smart, but I am also a little selfish because I am going to miss her so much!! I even thought a couple of times "I think I could handle homeschooling"...

Graci does not start back to preschool until next Monday. The house was very quiet today...I missed the sound of little girls giggling and shrilling together about every little thing. I missed the sweet feet running through the house all day. I missed my sweet "big" girl crawling up in my lap to watch a movie with me...I missed my girl. Graci even said a couple of times "I miss Ma-D-son".

I got to the school about 45 minutes before dismissal to make sure I was somewhat close to the front of the line. When they called her name and she stood up to come get in the car the tears started flowing again. She was a big girl now and she knew it!! She looked into the truck at me and started smiling the biggest sweetest smile...I was so happy to see her!! She got in and have me a big hug. I asked if she had a good day and she said "you know what was SOOO boring...gym, they didn't even let us run!!". Bless her...I think it is so cute that is what she had to say about her day first!! Her favorite things of her first day were lunch and recess on the playground!!!

On a side note...we had breakfast at Cracker Barrel this past Sunday morning and the girls ordered "white milk" as they call it. We showed Madison how to open the milk since she would be doing it at school. This evening I asked her if she was able to open her milk and she said "yeah, and everybody else at the table too!!" I bet she was on top of the world that she knew how to do that!!!





This is when I was picking her up...as soon as she saw me this is the look I got...makes my heart so happy!!

So her first day of kindergarten was a total success and she can't wait for tomorrow morning!!!

~Carson's Birth Story~

The good thing about having c-sections is knowing that you will never have to go through labor again!! I labored with Madi and it just was not meant to be and ended up having a c-section. When Graci came along, we set up my c-section date and I never had a doubt that I would make it to that day...

Totally different story with Carson...I knew I would not make it to my schedule day, and that scared me to death!! First of all, I did not want to labor, who wants to go through that pain knowing you are headed for a section anyway. Secondly, I was afraid I would do into labor during the night and what would we do with the girls.

At about 30 weeks is when it all started. The PRESSURE and PAIN that I started having was unbelievable. It never eased up and actually got worse, a lot worse the last few weeks. Some days it was hard for me to actually walk because the pain was so bad. I did not do this with either of the girls. My doctor said it was pain from having two previous sections.

The last few weeks the pain got almost unbearable. That is when I knew I would not make it to 39 weeks when I was scheduled for. On Monday, at 38 weeks I had contractions most of the day. They were pretty intense at times, but not consistent enough to keep track of and head to the hospital. Overall, I just felt very weird all day.

So I went on to bed at about 1am or so (I was not sleeping at all at this point) and at around 4:26 I had this horrid pain in my stomach and then felt what I thought was my water starting to break. I hurried to the potty only to find out it was blood, and ALOT of it. It scared me to death. I did not know what was happening. I got Jeremy up and we both knew I had to get to the hospital fast. We called a good friend who lives only a few miles away and she was at our house in about 10 minutes (Alicia, I can't thank you enough for being there for us that morning...love you girl!!). We did not know it at the time, but my placenta had abrupted (placenta tore away from the uterus).

We got on the road and I am still bleeding badly and so nervous...millions of things were going through my head and I was scared to death. I called the hospital to let them know we were on the way and while I was on the phone with them my water broke at about 4:53.

We made it to the birthing floor at 5:20. By that time I had very strong contractions. They got us into a room and the nurses were in no hurry at all, by the time I laid down I was coming off the table in pain and they are still just taking their time. The on call doctor came in and just acted like oh you are in labor, so what you are a scheduled c-section, and told me they would probably have me in the OR in about 2 to 2 ½ hours!!! I think she was just going to try to wait on my doctor to get in so she did not have to do it,

I was contracting about every 3 minutes and in so much pain. The nurse finally checked me about 6:15 and I was 5cm…she left the room and came back in and said you are going to have a baby soon. I was like really, you think? I am about to be pushing him out because y’all seem to not want to do anything!!!

They hurried me into the OR and by that time I was in full active labor and 10cm with no pain meds yet!!!!! It was no fun at all, I thought I was not supposed to have to worry about labor pains anymore!!! I soon got the lovely spinal and Carson was born at 7 am. My doctor did make it too, when he walked in they said they heard me out in the hallway rejoicing!!! I really wanted him there!!

Here is my sweet little fella right after he was born...



Oh, the girls were so excited to meet "baby brother". I cannot tell you how precious their faces were when they got there, especially Madi's. I will never forget that moment... Love the bottom pic here of Graci holding Carson, notice her pursed lips, she is trying to calm him because he is crying.

My boys... The bottom pic of Jeremy holding Madi is shortly after they arrived, such a precious face full of joy!!

Carson got to stay with us about 6 hours before they took him to the NICU for grunting and increased respirations…we were not happy but what do you do…it was kind of a blessing in disguise because he did have two strong antibiotics and came home to two sick big sisters…

It was so hard to see him in there hooked up to all the machines. And the schedule that we had to stick to was awful, I hated not being able to see him all the time...

Love the emotion in these pics where Jeremy is just staring at him...

and praying over him...

Oh this picture makes me cry every time I see it...

By Friday they let Carson come back into the room with us. We stayed one night and was able to go home on Saturday. Here I am getting my exercise walking the halls pushing my girls...of course they LOVED it!!!

Oh man, I love my little fella!!!


Headed home!!!!!!! Love the bottom pic, Carson says "see ya!!"


We had a very sweet welcome home from big sisters...the moment had finally come for them...baby brother was home!!! They gave them their gifts they picked out for him, so sweet!!!


He was worn out, so I put him in his bassinet. The girls quickly got into action, they were so concerned that he did not have any stuffed animals in there with him. ..they fixed that!! Such good big sisters!!!

~Carson David~

Carson made his debut on March 1st, two weeks before my due date and one week before my scheduled date!! We were surprised but I had a feeling he would get here early!! I have more pictures to share, but wanted to share this video I put together of his hospital stay through his first day home!! We are thrilled and are so blessed to have three beautiful babies...and as you can imagine his big sisters love him to death!!

~Baby Shower for Baby Boy~

I was so excited to have my family and closest friends get together to celebrate my sweet baby boy!! It was so good to see everyone and I got some really sweet gifts...baby boy will be here soon and I can't wait to use all of this on him!!! Thank you to all who helped out with the shower, we love you all so much!!!

~Girls Day Out~

So not much longer until my little man will be here...so I wanted to do something special with the girls. We started our day with haircuts. The girls were thrilled!!

This was Graci's first haircut...she was such a big girl and as you can see she thought it was awesome!!!

So proud of her big girl haircut!!! We won't tell her it was just a little trim~

This was Madi's biggest cut ever...she wanted it to come to her chest, so I let her!! She loves it and looks like such a big girl!!!

Then we got manis and pedis...this was there first time and they thought they were something!!!!

We ended our outing with lunch at Red Robin, the girls favorite!! We had a great time, I am so blessed!!!

~Happy Valentines Day~

~4K Valentine Party~

~Will you be my Valentine~

~More Snow~

We could get use to this...
and yes...I got out there with my preggo self and pulled the girls in the sled (Daddy went on in to work!!)

~Circus 2011~

The girls were so excited for our annual circus trip!! We had great seats and were so close to everything!!

Both of the girls favorite parts were the acrobats...we were right underneath them. Love the girls faces looking up at them...


Don't even know what to say about this side show...very weird!!!

~Getting Baby Brother's Room Ready~

The girls were more than willing to help daddy get baby brothers room painted!! They had a small area they were responsible for and they did a great job!!

I am almost 33 weeks now. I am doing okay!! I am not sleeping at ALL!! I will stay up late to make myself as tired as possible and finally about 2am I will go to bed and fall asleep (sometimes) but I am back up a couple hours later. Very miserable sleeping right now, but it will get better soon!!! Baby boy is active as ever...and he is SO strong!! He kicks and moves a lot harder than either of his sisters did!! I can't wait to meet him, see what he looks like and decide on a name for him!!!